Prosperity vs Happiness (Joan)

Singapore has a happiness index of 39.8 and ranks 90 out of the other countries analysed. despite Singapore being a relatively prosperous country as we can see from the statistics that we have a gdp per capital of 57932 which is 1.2 times more than USA's while Costa Rica with the happiness index of 64 has a gdp of 10184 which is about 5 times lesser than the gdp per capital of Singapore. i think we are not a really happy country as work is taking up most of our time and we don't have a lot of time to carry out leisure activities that we enjoy doing. we have to balance between the pressure of work and leisure time. results too have shown that being prosperous does not mean we are happy.

"money does not buy happiness" I feel that it's the relationships you have with people that makes you happy. being rich, one will start doubting if the people around him are his true friends or are they just trying to get near him for the money. even if one have all the money in the world, at the end of the day, he lost trust in relationships and become sad. is it all that worth it to give up happiness for money? 

having a lot of money will make one want more and more as the saying goes "money makes the world go round" and money too is important for survival. working the whole day to earn more money and not relaxing will not make one happy as he has lost the interest in life. thus, I think being rich does not make one happy.

to me happiness is when I'm with people I'm familiar with; when people even strangers wave and smile at me. It's the little things in daily life that are powerful enough to make one's day and one happy.